Delhi University divided over FYUP

The row over controversial Four-Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP) has divided the university into two camps with one camp which includes almost all the students’ and teachers’ association demanding a complete rollback. On the other side are the first-year students who say that they are happy with the course.

A group of around 200 first-year students from various colleges of the university staged a demonstration in favour of FYUP on Wednesday at the same venue where National Students Union of India (NSUI) leaders were sitting on hunger strike for the last six days demanding its roll back.

Ansh Goel, a student of B Tech in Maharaja Agrasen College who also spearheaded the ‘#SaveFYUP’ campaign said that there seniors (student leaders) are playing politcs over such a serious issue. ‘For their petty political gains, they are putting our future at risk. There is no basis in their argument; they are not even students of FYUP. We are the student of FYUP and we are happy with the course and its curriculum’, said Ansh.

The students have also started a Facebook page titled ‘Make it Better, Dont Delete it. FYUP- DU’ which has already got over 1,000 likes.

The union leaders have alleged that the students have been sent by VC himself to divert the issue. ‘There is a huge pressure on university to roll back FYUP now. By sending these students to campaign for FYUP he is trying to prove that he did the right thing by implementing it’, said a senior ABVP leader.

Meanwhile, the six-day hunger strike of National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) leaders demanding roll back of FYUP came to an abrupt end Tuesday night with university authorities using police force to end the protest. ‘Late last night, the university officials came with police and forced us to end our strike. Our leaders were forcefully shifted out and taken into an ambulance’, said Amreesh Pandey, spokesperson of NSUI.

Following the turn of events, the NSUI members shouted slogans against Vice-Chancellor (VC) and DU administration outside Union Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani’s house 

on Wednesday.